


A Camping We Will Go

by KylaraIngress



Category: Sports Night
Genre: Angst, First Time, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2001-07-18
Updated: 2001-07-18
Packaged: 2019-08-08 10:30:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16427642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KylaraIngress/pseuds/KylaraIngress
Summary: The boyz wake up in a sleeping bag, naked, with no memory of the prior night. And things just kinda snowball from there.





	A Camping We Will Go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [earlgreytea68](https://archiveofourown.org/users/earlgreytea68/gifts).



> I wrote this in 2001, and wasn't going to repost it here, but EarlGreyTea68 posted her lovely "Shipped" and I figured what the hell? Here are my original author's notes: This started as an answer to a challenge on the Sports Night list, where it was just supposed to be a fun romp. Then my angst monster got a hold of it. Teach ME for not feeding him regularly!

It was bright.

It was very bright.

It was very bright and cold.

Dan didn't know why it was so bright in his bedroom – after all, he never was home when it was daylight – and he was too out of it to worry as to why it was cold. So, he snuggled deeper into the sleeping bag, and pulled the fabric over his naked torso.

_Sleeping . . . bag?_

The last time he checked, he didn't have a sleeping bag in his bedroom. The last time he checked, he didn't even own a sleeping bag.

Deciding it was just another odd thing he'd figure out once he got up, he did a slow rollover to try and get away from the harsh light threatening to wake him up. As he finished, his left arm flailed out on its own accord – and gave a loud smack (at least to Dan's head, doing a good imitation of a brass band) as it encountered not more sleeping bag, not open air, but flesh.

Naked flesh.

He cautiously scrunched open one eye, and winced as it confirmed what his hand was conveying – a naked arm lay just inches away from his own naked body, and he assumed there was probably some lovely lady at the end of that arm (although something about the arm didn't seem to want to fit, he wasn't wanting to deal with it).

Being in this type of situation far more times than he cared to admit, he re-shut his eyes, gently moved his hand, and started to cuddle against whoever he had ended up in bed with. Again, he would figure out the whole situation – how it happened, how they were both able to fit in a sleeping bag, and whom he was with – once he gave himself time to wake up.

Thoughts of going back to sleep, however, went quickly away as his hand encountered a flat chest.

A very flat chest.

Make that a very flat hairy chest.

He braved the bright light again, scrunching both eyes open this time, and had his third shock of the morning as he recognized Casey, sleeping blissfully naked in the sleeping bag with him. (Well, two sleeping bags, if you were going to get technical – one on the floor and one to cover themselves up with.)

"Ah, shit," he swore quietly, not wanting to wake Casey up just yet. Thankfully, he only gave a slight pleasured groan at Dan's hand location, then snuggled deeper into the sleeping bag.

He carefully moved his hand away, and rolled onto his back. And gave yet another swear as his morning only got better – finally recognizing where the two were.

A plethora of questions flew through his mind at an astounding rate. Why were he and Case in a sleeping bag in the studio? Why were they both naked? And did it have anything to do with the underwear that was hanging from a studio light above them? Since he knew they weren't his (as far as he knew, he didn't own a pair with smiley faces on them), he could only assume they were Casey's.

He searched his mind, trying desperately to remember what happened yesterday.

It was all Casey's fault. Actually, it was more Charlie's fault (and it wasn't really Charlie's fault, either, but Dan needed a scapegoat). He remembered walking into the office in the morning, all ready to start working on the show, and nearly tripping over a bundle of camping supplies – sleeping bag, backpack, cooler, etc. When he asked, Casey had explained that since he had the next day off, he had promised to take Charlie out camping.

Unfortunately, by the time Lisa and Charlie were there, a combination of events (including a spilled soda, the delay in the game CSC was broadcasting, and a sudden attack of second-generation mumps on the replacement anchor for Casey) led to Charlie being taken back home, and Case left with a pile of camping gear and nowhere to go.

Since the control room was useless, _Sports Night_ and _West Coast Update_ both had to broadcast in the backup studio. Dan had lost Casey on the way back to the office, and by the time he caught up, he had walked in on his friend, sitting on one of the rolled up sleeping bags, drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels. When questioned, Dan had gotten a slurred reply of, "I said I was goin' camping, and I'm going to go camping. With or without Charlie."

Seeing that Casey was already well on his way to being plastered, Dan had convinced him to 'camp out' in the studio. _Well, that explains why we're here_. And, in order to keep Casey calm, he also joined in the makeshift 'party' by drinking heavily (Isaac had a lot of alcohol).

And that's when things started to get hazy. A vague memory flashed, of the two of them dancing to "The Time Warp" on top of the anchor desk, music blaring from the control room. He also seemed to remember getting a hold of more alcohol (seems everyone had a secret bottle of something stashed in their desk), and consuming a very unhealthy amount. And he seemed to remember something about Truth and Dare as well, but other than that . . . .

He looked back down at his body, and couldn't help noticing Casey's next to his, the arms and top of the chest the only visible parts. Curiosity overrode his panic, and he slowly raised the scratchy fabric. He gazed down, wanting – no, needing – this final confirmation of what his brain had already concluded. And sighed as he saw Casey's cock, proudly sporting morning wood, just inches from his own.

 _Teach me to play Truth or dare when I'm drunk_ , was the first coherent thought. He had a feeling the game had something to do with their states of undress.

He heard a groan of excruciating pain, and he realized Casey was about to wake up, probably with a doozy of a hangover. And he was nowhere near ready to deal with . . . this. So, he tried to nonchalantly sit up on his elbow, acting like nothing in the world should be wrong with the two of them naked in bed together, failing miserably when his other hand landed on a slightly damp spot on the outside of the top sleeping bag.

*****

It was bright.

It was very bright.

It was very bright and cold.

Casey didn't know why it was so bright in his bedroom, and the pounding in his head wasn't doing anything to distract him from the coldness he could feel against his arms. He gave a half-hearted groan, trying to get to sleep – and that's when he heard it. The slight whispering of shifting, of someone moving. Someone who was in the bed with him.

 _Shit_. Not only did he have no memory of who he had gone to bed with (he briefly wondered if he had 'dallied' with Sally yet again), but how the two wound up together in the first place. He strained his memory for the events of the prior night, and chastised himself when all he could think of was a vague recollection of wanting to camp with Charlie.

He heard a slight intake of air from the person next to him, and he knew it was time to face the proverbial music. Putting on what he hoped was his sexy smile, he positioned himself to where when he opened his eyes, he would get an eyeful of his bunkmate.

He carefully opened his eyes, and definitely got an eyeful.

"Dan?"

"Casey." This was said in a very calm voice.

"Dan!"

"Casey." This said like he was calling the name in role-call.

"Dan?"

"Case," he said, then shook his head. "I think we know each other's names by now."

"Dan, what are you doing in my bedroom?" _Ignore the lack of clothes on us right now_.

Dan just pointed. Casey followed the point, and swore.

"That's what I said," Dan said with a strained laugh.

"What are we doing on the floor in the main studio?" he asked carefully, not really wanting to know.

"You don't remember either?"

"We were camping?"

"What was your first clue?" Dan asked, bringing up a fistful of sleeping bag. Unfortunately, the action gave Casey much more than an eyeful.

So, the inevitable question had to be asked. "Why were we camping in the nude?"

Dan's face went into some sort of convulsion of emotion, and Casey was suddenly worried. "Uh," he started nervously, "we may not have been just camping." And to prove his point (pun intended), he uncovered them both, showing the two cocks rising proudly toward each other.

"You mean you and I . . ." he asked, sitting up.

"I can't say we did," Dan said, looking away, "but I also can't say we didn't. We got into Isaac's alcohol . . . ."

"Who knew he had that much?" Casey asked, holding his head against the throbbing of his temples. "And we started dancing on the anchor desk, right?"

"It's just a jump to the left'," Dan quoted. "And then, I remember playing Truth or Dare."

"Truth or Dare?"

"Truth or Dare." Dan took a deep breath, then said, "Something tells me there was more dares than truths going on."

"There was?"

"There was."

"What makes you say that?" Casey asked.

Dan's response was just to gesture to their bodies.

"Oh, yeah. That."

"That. We gotta talk about this."

"What this?"

"This this."

"There is no this," Casey continued to deny.

"Case," Dan said patiently, too patiently, "we woke up together, naked."

"You act like that's never happened before," Casey tried to joke.

"Not with you!"

"There's gotta be a way we can get around it."

"Get around it?" Dan asked, incredulous.

"Yeah," Casey said, trying to come up with some way to explain it away. "I mean, how do we know anything happened at all?"

As an answer, Dan just brought Casey's hand down to the damp spot on the sleeping bag. And, despite the protests, Casey couldn't help noticing that, despite the morning being long gone, they were still sporting prominent wood. (And did looking at Dan naked produce a little stronger reaction than it should've?) He really wish Dan would change the subject – he wasn't sure what to make of the events so far. He wasn't gay (no matter what his dreams were like). Then again, Casey could recall the main reason Lisa asked for a divorce. Then there was that incident in college . . . .

"So what are we going to do about it?" Dan interrupted his thoughts.

"Do?" Casey squelched, trying not to shudder at the prepubescent tones his voice suddenly had. What could they do? Even if he did want to admit to his . . . leanings toward that area, Dan was nowhere near a leaning – his stalking of Rebecca showed that well enough.

"Yeah. We don't want it to get weird."

"Weird?" Casey asked. "How can it 'get' weird? It's already past weird."

"True," Dan said. "But we're guys, right?"

"I should hope that's fairly obvious."

"Guys can handle this kind of thing."

"Oh, women can't handle it?" Casey asked with a grin, knowing instinctively what Dana and Natalie would have to say to that statement.

"You know what I mean," Dan said. "Women, in this kind of situation, usually go overboard and try to turn everything into everything."

"Uh-huh," Casey said, trying to follow Dan's logic. Unfortunately, he was just too tired and hung over to follow normal logic, let alone 'Danny logic'.

"Plus, we're friends."

"Yeah?"

"We've got to figure out where we stand in all this."

"We do?" Casey asked. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to explore that aspect of their relationship. But then again, it seemed they already had.

"We have to decide whether we're going to decide anything," Dan said. "Or do we just ignore what may have happened, and go back to just friends?"

"Let's decide not to decide," Casey said. "Let's just feel it out," and he winced at the double meaning, "and go from there." With that, he gave a sigh. "How in the hell did we get in this mess?"

"Truth or Dare, my friend," Dan said with a sigh of his own. "Truth or Dare."

Casey just closed his eyes, and laid back. After a few seconds to collect his thoughts, he re-opened them. "Dan?"

"Yeah?" By the sound of Dan's voice, Casey could tell he had laid back down as well.

"Did you know there's a pair of underwear hanging off a light?"

"It's a Fresnel."

"Right, a Fresnel. What's a pair of boxers doing hanging on a Fresnel?"

"I rather thought they looked more like briefs," Dan said. After a slight pause, he asked, "They're not yours?"

"They're not yours?"

"Case, I can give you a definite assurance that those," he said, pointing to the item dangling above them, "are not mine. I assumed they were yours."

"What makes you think they're mine?" Casey asked.

With a quirk of the eyes, Dan answered, "Smiley faces?"

Casey got ready to answer, but he then heard the clicking of heels. They both glanced, then followed, as Kim walked through the studio. "Hey, Dan. Hey, Casey," she said, not really looking at them. She got as far as the anchor desk before her mind comprehended what she had seen, and she slowly turned around. "Dan? Casey?" she asked.

It was then that Casey realized that they were still visibly naked. "Uh, Kim," he started, feeling the blush creep up his face.

"It's not what it looks like," Dan added, hastily pulling up the sleeping bag to cover them up.

"Why is it that realities never live up to the fantasy?" she asked the air. Looking back down at the two, she asked hopefully, "I don't suppose there's a tubful of tapioca pudding around somewhere?"

Dan and Casey just stared at each other, not quite sure they wanted to know.

"Didn't think so," Kim answered. "You mind telling me why you two are having sex in the studio?"

"We were not having sex!" Casey said.

"We don't know that for sure," Dan chirped, grinning at Casey.

"Hey, Casey, did you know your boxers were hanging from a light?"

"It's a Fresnel."

"Those are not my underwear!"

"You two got into Isaac's secret stash, didn't you?"

"Who knew he had so much?" came the reply from both Dan and Casey.

"Well, just to let you boys know, your afterglow nap lasted probably a little longer than you realized – we start the noon rundown here in a few minutes, and Dana's out on the warpath for you both."

And Kim was suddenly glad the studio microphones weren't turned on, for what the two anchors said at that realization would've fried the circuits.

*****

It was still bright.

It was still very bright.

It was still very bright, but thankfully the coldness had left once Dan found his clothes and managed to get dressed. The noon rundown meeting had gone by uneventfully, thankfully to the large . . . make that very large . . . no, make that disgustingly huge financial bribe to the pockets of one Kim Simpson. There were a few odd looks at the two anchors, but it wasn't too noticeable that they were wearing the same clothes.

Dan was sitting in the editing room, needing to talk it over, but knowing Casey seemed to be quite happy deciding not to decide anything. He had tried calling Abbey, but she was away on vacation. He needed to talk to someone.

"Hey, Dan," Natalie said as she flew in, as if an answer to his plea.

"Nat, can we talk?"

"Is it about Jeremy?" she asked, her eyes squinting in either desire or anger – he wasn't sure. This whole 'non-breakup' of the two was bizarre, to say the least, but he figured he had her beat on this one.

"It's about Casey," he said.

"What's with Casey?"

"Last night, we had sex," he confessed quickly, before he could change his mind, and then added, "I think."

"You think?" she queried, not even showing a bit of nonplussness at the concept of him and Casey having a sexual experience. That worried him.

"Well, I can't remember," he added, his eyes dropping, feeling like he was making it up. Hell, it sounded made up to HIM.

"You can't remember?" she parroted. At his shake of the head, she added, "Danny, I think that's something you would remember. I mean, I know if I had a homosexual experience with Dana, I'd remember."

"You've had a homosexual experience with Dana?" Elliott chose that moment to walk into the editing bay to get a tape. You could tell by the look in his eyes that he was beyond imaging the two women, and this admittance was close to heaven.

"No, Elliott," she told the chubby man whose sole job, it seemed, was to infuriate her. "Just take the tape and get out of here, okay?"

"Okay, but we need the tape for the Blues hockey game edited for tonight," he said, sounding put out.

"I'll do it, okay?" Natalie said, giving him a slight push to the door. "Dan and I were talking, okay?" and with that, she finished ousting the man. Quickly locking the door, she turned and continued, "Now, where were we?"

"You were telling me you would remember having a homosexual experience with Dana," Dan said, and by the look in his eyes, it was easy to tell that Elliott wasn't the only one fantasizing.

"Yeah, so how could you say you don't remember?" she asked.

"Well, we kinda got a little drunk."

"You found Isaac's secret stash?" came the shocked reply.

"Yeah, and a few bottles elsewhere," Dan answered. "You know, you'd think I WOULD remember. I mean, something like that would be fairly hard to forget, I'd like to think."

"True," Natalie said. "From the slash fiction I've read, you would have some definite evidence."

"The what?" he asked.

"The slash fiction."

"What's that?"

"Well, it's fan fiction, but it's with regards to same sex partners and usually involves, well, making out," she continued.

"Same sex fan fiction?"

"You know, like Sam and Al from _Quantum Leap_ ," she said.

"Or Quinn & Rembrant from _Sliders_ ," he nodded his understanding.

"Usually it's male with male, but sometimes it's female with female," she said with a smile. "There's also this division that's called Real People Slash."

"Isn't that libelous?" he asked.

"And infringes on copyright," she said, "you know, like singing 'Happy Birthday' on the air?" He just cringed at her reference, and she continued, "But since it's not for profit, most of it is just ignored. I remember once coming across some RPS about you and Casey, and it was pretty hot."

"Uh huh?" Dan asked, remembering briefly the conversation he had had with regards to singing 'Happy Birthday' on the air. The lady had mentioned it was 'vaguely gay', and he wondered (not for the first time) how many people thought that his on-air partner was also his off-air 'partner'.

"Apparently, you were made for each other."

"And what does this have to do with whether I would remember a sexual encounter with Casey?" he didn't want to ask.

"Evidence," she said.

"Evidence?"

"Well, you've been to a proctologist, I'm assuming," she started.

He quickly interrupted. "I see where you're going. No, no pain THERE." And as if to prove his point, he patted his butt. "But that doesn't mean anything. I mean, I could very well have been the penetrator as well as the penetrated."

"But Casey doesn't seem to be having any pain either," she noticed for him.

"That's true. That would lead us to assume nothing happened last night."

"Not necessarily," Natalie said, brushing her dark hair out of her eyes.

"What do you mean?" Dan asked warily.

"Well, sex isn't just penetration, Danny," she said.

"I don't even want to know," came the voice of Dana Whittaker, Executive Producer, as she somehow walked into the room. "Do you have the highlights of last night's game in here?" she asked.

"Casey's supposed to be working on a story on it," Natalie responded. "How did you get in here, Dana? I locked the door."

"I do have a set of keys," she said. "Casey's got it, 'kay," she said, and before either Dan or Natalie could warn her of the potential problems talking with Casey, she flew out of the room, relocking the door as she went.

"So, sex isn't just penetration?" Dan asked, as if Dana's entrance hadn't even happened.

"No. I mean, I've read a few things myself, and sex can be just mutual masturbation or oral sex."

"You mean to tell me I've had a homosexual experience and I didn't even know it?" Dan cried out.

"Huh?" Natalie responded. "I thought that was the problem – you didn't remember it."

"No," Dan corrected. "Senior year in high school. Every year, the seniors had an unofficial camp-out. Pretty much the only reasons you went were to get laid and get drunk, both of which I was heavily into at the age of 17."

"TMI, Danny, TMI."

"Anyway, I got what I considered at the time really smashed. I mean, we're talking a LOT of beer."

"But you obviously remember that night," Natalie picked up.

"Isaac had a LOT of alcohol," Dan gave as his excuse. "But I was saying, that night, me and my best friend at the time, Sean, we . . . well, we . . . we kinda jerked off each other after the girls had gone to sleep."

"Uh-huh?" Natalie prodded, this time showing that HER fantasies were starting to go into overdrive.

"I haven't done anything like that since," he said. "Well, unless something DID happen last night. Which we don't know that it did." And he suddenly remembered the damp spot on the sleeping bag this morning.

"What if something did, Danny?" she asked quietly, turning the conversation serious. "Can you handle having a homosexual experience with Casey?"

And this time, Dan let his eyes go up to Natalie. "If I was to do it again, Nat, he would be the guy I'd want to do it with."

"But you're not sure if he would react the same."

"He's been the one so insistent that nothing happened," Dan admitted, letting his eyes drift back down, and slowly placing his head in his hands. "And I have to admit something, Nat," he said quietly. "When I woke up, and saw him there, lying beside me, asleep . . . ."

"Yeah?"

And the eyes came back up again. "I never felt so happy in my life. It felt like I was finally complete."

"Oh, Dan," she sighed, placing her hand on his shoulder. After a second or two of comforting him, she decided, "You've got to tell him."

"Tell him what?" he asked, his voice showing the awkwardness and confusion and hurt that he was barely suppressing.

"You've got to tell him that you're in love with him."

*****

It was still bright.

It was still very bright.

It was still very bright and now it was exceedingly warm as Casey tried yet again to focus on writing the show and not think about this morning, and Dan, and . . . .

And _damn_ , for the more he tried NOT thinking about the events of the morning, the more his mind would sway back. And damn again if his subconscious wasn't having WAY too much fun at his expense as the only song he could hum while writing up the baseball scores was "Paradise By the Dashboard Light". ('He's gonna slide in head first, here he comes, he's out! No, wait, safe – safe at second base. This kid really makes things happen out there.')

He took another deep breath and stood up, wondering where Dan was all this time. HE had been the one not wanting it to get weird, but his absence only helped scream out how 'weird' this whole thing was.

He strolled over to the window, looking out at the New York skyline, wishing with all his might that he could remember last night.

But a part of him was hoping he'd never remember; and that part was because he wasn't sure what exactly he wanted to have happened to them. True, part of him was terrified that he and Dan had done . . . whatever it was assumed they had done, forever ruining their friendship. But part of him was equally terrified that he'd remember _nothing_ had happened. He couldn't help but remember this morning, how when he had opened his eyes and saw Dan's naked form, a part of him had responded . . . well, let's just say it wasn't just morning wood that had made his cock stand up after that moment.

"Natalie says you have the highlights of last night's game?" came the voice of Dana from behind him, and he jumped, startled, hoping that his slight erection at the memory of this morning couldn't be seen in his rumpled suit. He turned, and she was standing at the door, not quite walking in all the way.

"Yeah," he said, unconsciously placing his hands in front of him in an almost guarding gesture. "You need it now?" he asked.

"Well, considering we have a show to do tonight and that's part of the show, it would be helpful." Her eyes squinted, picking up that Casey wasn't acting normal, and she took a hesitant step into the office. "Is everything alright?" she asked finally.

"Yeah," he said, looking slightly away.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

She was partially turned around before he finally stopped her with a questioned, "Dana?"

"Yeah, Casey?"

"You have a moment?" And he turned and looked at her. Without another word, she was in, the office door was closed and locked, and she was by his side.

"Wanna sit down?" she asked. An odd question in his office, true, but they both knew who was the one in control here.

He slowly sank to the couch as a response, putting his hands on his knees and his head in his hands. "Oh, God, Dana," he choked out.

"What?" she asked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice and failing miserably.

"I fucked up," he said, then gave a bark of a laugh at his choice of words. "I really fucked up, Dana."

"What?" This said more shocked, both at Casey's swearing and at the fact that he was admitting messing up – two things he rarely did.

"Dan and I," he started, trying to get a hold of his breathing, "Dan and I . . . we . . . that is . . . ."

"You and Dan," she prompted.

"Yeah," he sighed, admitting that much, "me and Dan. We . . . I think we . . . . Oh, God, Dana, I think we messed up our friendship just for some quick sex."

Dana just sat there, not quite comprehending the meaning, yet comprehending it way too deeply for Casey to know.

"Last night," he started, "we stuck around after the show. I was upset, not bein' able to camp out with Charlie, and I had a few drinks."

"You didn't get into Isaac's secret stash, did you?"

"Who knew he had that much alcohol?" he whined. "Dan decided to stick around; I guess he didn't want me to be alone or something. The next thing I can remember clearly, we were waking up in the studio this morning."

"Wow," Dana whistled. "You two really drank." She patted him on the side, and said, "But I don't see the problem, Casey. If anything, Dan sticking around showed how good of a friend he was."

"You didn't let me finish," he sighed. "We woke up in the studio this morning, naked."

"Naked?" Dana asked.

"Naked."

"Naked, as in no clothes?" she clarified.

"Naked, as in no clothes, as in nude, as in stripped, as in unclothed, as in bare assed, as in NAKED!"

"Ah, naked," she said. "And so you two . . . ."

"I don't know," he sighed. "WE don't know. Neither of us can remember HOW we got naked."

"Wow," Dana repeated. "You two REALLY drank."

"And I can't stop thinking about it. I mean, Danny's not gay. I'm not gay. There was that one time in college . . . ."

"WHAT one time?" Dana quickly interrupted.

"It was with Skip," he said. "One night, we were sittin' around, playing Truth or Dare," and he gave another shaky laugh at the similarities. "Something tells me there was more dares than truths going on," he quoted Dan. "Anyway, he told me he was actually bisexual, and furthered it with the knowledge that he had a slight crush on me. The next dare was for me to kiss him. That turned into touching him, which turned into . . . ." He gave a quick look at Dana, to see how she was reacting to all this, and let out a shaky breath at the apparent calmness. "He asked me to have sex with him, Dana, to . . . to penetrate him. And part of me had always been curious, so . . . so I did. He showed me what to do, how it was different than doing it with a girl, and . . . ."

"And?" Dana asked with bated breath.

"And it was like nothing I had ever done before. Sex with Skip was so completely different, yet so alike, and all at the same time, it was . . . it was the best I've ever had," he finally admitted.

"But?" Dana asked, sensing one coming.

"But after that night, Skip acted like nothing had happened, and we never talked about it again. Actually, we never talked again, period," he said, finally realizing why this situation with Dan was giving him so much grief.

"And so you're afraid this is what's going to happen with Dan," she spoke the thoughts that were tripping merrily through Casey's head. "Have you two talked about it?"

"We've decided not to decide anything," he admitted, remembering what Dan had said about how guys could handle this kind of thing. _Women, when faced with a naked bunkmate and an absent memory, usually go overboard and try and turn everything into everything_ , he had said, clearly indicating he wasn't wanting to make anything out of . . . whatever had happened.

"You've got to tell him," Dana said, brushing back Casey's blond hair over his ear. "You've got to tell him that you would like to explore the relationship further."

Casey just stared at her in shock. "You're suggesting I talk to Dan?" he asked. "Aren't you even the tiniest bit weirded out about all this? Not to mention possibly jealous, considering your history with me?"

She sighed, and put her hands on his shoulders. "Casey, there are times in a woman's life where she realizes that sometimes a man's going to be permanently out of reach." She gave her small smile that he always found so endearing, and continued, "I've seen the way you look at him sometimes, when you think he's not watching." She patted his arm, and finally said the one thing that made his decision for him, "And I think so did Lisa, when she was married to you."

*****

It was gloomy.

It was very gloomy.

It was very gloomy and quite warm in the control room as the players all got into places for the nightly performance that was _Sports Night_. Dana was sitting in her place, running graphics with Chris and Will, both of them in their respective spots below her, ready to do their jobs. Kim and Elliott, as usual, were snipping at each other like cats and dogs. Natalie was, as usual, to Dana's left, pointedly ignoring Jeremy at Dana's right, and Dana could only assume that this was the latest tactic in trying to get Jeremy to acknowledge that the two didn't really break up after all.

And Isaac . . . . Isaac had been noticeably absent during all the rundowns for the show, and when Dana had tried going to his office, it had been locked. It actually helped, not having him there for the rundown meetings – Dana thought she would've broken down in tears had he been there to witness the increasing tension between Dan and Casey, and how that ended up affecting everyone else on the team. At one point during the 10 o'clock rundown, she had bitten down on her tongue to keep back from yelling, "Just FUCK each other and get it over with!"

But Casey had sworn her to secrecy (although she could tell that Natalie knew, and it was a good bet Kim knew, which meant that both Jeremy and Elliott knew, who probably had gone right out and told the rest of the staff). And for once in her brilliant career, Dana Whittaker was actually going to keep a secret.

"Five minutes," she said over the headset to Dan and Casey, who – for the first time in _Sports Night_ history – had so little script written that they were primarily depending on visual aids to carry them through.

And it was at THAT moment that Isaac decided to enter the control room.

"Who drank my 25-year-old scotch?" he bellowed even before he was fully in the doorway.

Dana just looked at Natalie, who gave a brief look to the two anchors shown on one of the monitors.

"Dan and Casey were found in the studio this morning," Natalie finally said as an answer.

"And this has what to do with my scotch?" Isaac asked.

"They were both naked," Natalie said.

You could hear the crickets chirping, which was odd, considering they were not only in New York City and so nowhere NEAR crickets, but inside a building with no way to open up windows as well.

Isaac looked from Natalie to Dana to the screen and then back to Natalie, finally admitting, "I don't even want to know."

"As long as they didn't mess up any of the camera angles," Dana said, "they'll live."

Her apparent lack of concern over Dan and Casey's state of undress in the morning seemed to shock the rest of the crew into action, as Chris asked, "Is this graphic okay?"

Dana swore that the fact that the tower shown looked like a giant phallic symbol had been intentional on Chris's part.

"Let's get ready to do a show," she said. "And we're on."

"This is Dan Rydell, alongside Casey McCall," Dan started the show smoothly, "those stories, plus . . ." and he handed it over to Casey.

Who watched the pair of underwear that had been teetering on the edge of the light drop right before his eyes. "Underwear falling in our studio," he gave as his response, too shocked to say what was really on the teleprompter.

"Back in five," Will said, almost automatically going to commercial.

"Did a pair of briefs just fall from the sky?" Dana asked.

"They looked more like boxers," Elliott said.

"Dan says they're briefs," Kim said.

"They're Dan's?" Dana asked. "What are Dan's underwear doing falling from the sky?" she continued, not quite sure she wanted an answer to that question.

"Actually, they look more like Casey's," Natalie decided to chip in.

"Why Casey's?" Dana had to ask.

Natalie just stared at her friend and boss, and finally said, "Smiley faces?"

"Those are NOT my underwear," came Casey's voice through the headset.

"Want to explain why you two were naked in the studio this morning?" Isaac asked, having grabbed a nearby microphone.

"Did you know you have a LOT of alcohol in your office, Isaac?" Dan asked.

"I HAD," Isaac corrected. "And what were you two doing breaking into my office for alcohol in the first place?"

"We were thirsty?" Dan offered.

"They were having sex on the studio floor," Kim suggested.

"We were NOT having sex!" Casey said.

"We don't know that for sure," Dan countered.

"Back in thirty seconds," Will said.

"What you two do in your own time is your own business," Isaac said, showing why he was the boss. "Just try and keep it out of the studio, okay?"

"Yes, sir," the two answered as one. They glanced at each other as they each realized it, then shook themselves – ready for the rest of the show.

*****

It was gloomy.

It was very gloomy.

It was very gloomy and quite warm in the offices of _Sports Night_ as Sally Sasser walked through after her show, _West Coast Update_ , had wrapped up. She was a woman with a purpose, and that purpose lay in the videotape that she held clasped in her hands.

Unbelievably, outside of the underwear incident, the rest of the broadcast of _Sports Night_ had gone smoothly, and Isaac eventually got compensated for his 25-year-old scotch. At the end of the show, the team was ready to finally identify that the underwear (finally determined they were boxer-briefs) belonged to one of the stagehands (who had NO idea how they got up on the light).

Sally walked up to Dan and Casey's office, seeing their shadows outlined in the darkened door. She heard them talking, and before knocking, she paused, just to make sure she wasn't interrupting anything.

"I talked to Natalie," Dan said.

"Yeah?" Casey answered. "I talked to Dana."

"Yeah?" Dan responded. "Well, Natalie said I should tell you something."

"Funny – Dana said I should tell you something, too."

"Well?"

"You said something first," Casey countered.

"Nat thinks I should tell you . . . ."

"Yeah?"

"I think I may be in love with you," Dan finally admitted. Sally just stood back, holding back a gasp. When she had come into the studio last night after her show was done and saw the two living it up, she felt she had the perfect joke and placed a videotape in a nearby machine to tape the hijinks of the two drunken anchors. After viewing it last night, though, she had decided it wasn't worthy blackmail material. But now . . . .

"What did you just say?" Casey asked, and as Sally strained, she could see that the two were sitting next to each other on the couch, close but not too close, and at this statement, Casey had just brought up his eyes to bear into Dan's.

"I think I'm in love with you," Dan repeated, clearly uncomfortable with the turn of conversation. "I mean, if you were a woman, I'd've asked you out a long time ago. You're all I can think about lately."

"I am?" Casey was clearly flabbergasted by this confession, but Sally also recognized the look on Casey's face. Recognized it, for she had seen it on his face the night THEY slept together.

"Yeah, and I don't know if I can go back to being just friends after . . . after . . . ."

"Yeah, after," Casey responded.

"So what did Dana tell you to tell me?" Dan asked, looking back down at his hands.

"I've had a homosexual experience," he admitted. Sally took another deep breath – now THIS she should've videotaped!

"You, too?" Dan said, and Sally nearly fell over in her strained attempt to get a better look.

"What do you mean, you, too?"

As the two friends exchanged their tales of experimentation, Sally wasn't even sure if she was in the same office. This COULDN'T be happening.

"So what does this mean?" Dan finally asked as the two digested the stories.

"For us?" Casey asked, needing to make sure.

"Yeah."

"I'm not sure, Dan," he said. "But I know I would like to try camping out with you again sometime soon."

Dan's laughter at this statement was refreshed and clear, as if all the tension the two had been feeling all day were suddenly released in that one laugh.

"So we've decided, then?" Dan asked once he got a hold of himself.

"I know I've decided," Casey said, and slowly put his hands on Dan's cheeks.

"You sure this isn't getting weird?" Dan asked, needing to make sure.

"If it is, be prepared for it to get REALLY weird," Casey answered, and slowly brought his lips in for a slow, experimental kiss. Sally nearly fainted at the inherent sweetness of the act, and was suddenly realizing she had gone past the point of blackmail material, but also realizing she couldn't move if she wanted to.

The kiss became intensely passionate and erotic, and Dan took the next step and brought up his hands to Casey's shirt, starting to unbutton it. Ties were nowhere to be found, and Sally could guess that the ties were the first things off when the show was over.

She felt a sigh build up as Dan finished taking off Casey's shirt, remembering what it was like to feel that fine layer of fuzz against her chest, how it tickled but felt good all at once. Dan obviously felt the same, as a strangled giggle rumbled through the kiss.

The two broke away long enough to get Dan's shirt off as well, and then Casey was the one emboldened as he brought his lips down to nibble at Dan's left nipple, pushing the man back into the couch as he did so.

The languor that held the two was suddenly broken as the intensity rose (among other things, Sally was not surprised to see). Hands were scrabbling at belts and pants as they each tried to take off the other's, nearly blocking each other's efforts in their own desperate plea for contact. Somehow, in the mix of getting each other undressed, they switched places and Dan was on top, Casey's back to the couch pillows.

Belts unfurled, pants unsnapped and unzipped, the two went in for another kiss as soon as the zippers were down, almost as if they were in a race to see which one would surrender first. If it was a race, Casey lost as Dan grabbed his cock in his hand and gave it a strong stroke, making Casey moan and shudder in reaction.

"You like it rough?" Dan asked in a near-growl. "Is that right, Case? You like it rough and hard?"  He got his answer as the cock in his hand got even larger. "All that time, always in control," Dan continued, "and the only time you can let go is here and now," and he gave Casey's cock another quick, strong stroke.

"Oh, GOD, Dan," Casey could only mutter incoherently. "Dan, Dan, DANNY!" he screamed as Dan continued to give him a hand job like no other.

"That's right, Casey," Dan said. "Let me take care of you, let me handle you, let me love you."

"Oh, GOD, yes!" Casey shouted in response. And gave another shouted moan as Dan replaced his hand with his mouth. Sally just shivered in her own need as she watched Dan's head bob up and down, giving what appeared to be a world-class blowjob.

An arch of the back and a strangled cry of pleasure showed that Casey had come; Dan just gave an evil smile . . . and swallowed.

"That's enough of that," Casey said once he got his breath back, and this time, it was HIS turn to push the other back against the couch, stroking and pulling and kissing.

"Oh, God, Case," Dan huffed as Casey returned the favor. "Oh, yeah, man, that's it. That's right. Oh, God, Case, do it for me."

Casey only took a half of thought before he leaned over Dan and started sucking on the cock that stood proudly in front of him.

"Oh, Casey," Dan moaned as he watched his friend, his lover, do something he never thought he'd do.

A few minutes later and he was able to scream out to the powers that be in his release, and Casey took only a half of a second to decide that if Dan didn't have a problem with swallowing, he'd try it, too.

"Oh, shit!" Casey sighed as soon as he got his breath back and leaned down next to Danny.

"You can say that again," Dan said.

"Oh, SHIT!" Casey repeated as asked. "That . . . that . . . that . . . ."

"Damn straight," Dan finished. "Well, actually, NOT straight, now that I think about it."

"Cute, Danny," he said. "So . . . where do we go from here?"

"About us?"

"Yeah," Casey admitted, looking away. "I mean, neither of are gay, are we?"

Dan carefully grabbed Casey's chin and moved it so the two were looking at each other. "Who's to say? Maybe we're both bi. Sexuality isn't an either/or, you know, and I have always liked the thought that sexuality is more of a scale with different grades."

"So how do I grade?" Casey asked with a smirk.

"I love you, Case," he said. "I guess I have for quite awhile. Just took a good kick in the ass for me to admit it."

"Or at least a good game of Truth or Dare," Casey couldn't help but joke. He saw Dan's eyes, not wanting to show his expectations, and quickly said, "I love you, too, Dan. Seems everyone knew it but me, even Lisa."

"So . . . where do we go from here?" Dan threw back the question at him.

"Let's just feel it out," and this time he smiled at the double meaning, "and go from there."

"I can do that," Dan said, doing EXACTLY that.

"Did you hear something?" Casey suddenly asked, turning his head toward the door.

"What?" Dan asked, but he, too, sat up and looked at the door to the office.

Casey got up, and walked quickly to the door. "I thought I heard a noise," he explained, as he opened it.

Sitting outside on one of the desk chairs, skirt hiked up and only one visible hand, was Sally – taking care of herself, a videotape on the desk in front of her.

"What in the hell?" Dan asked.

"Sally?"

"Oh, shit!" she swore. Suddenly, she realized she no longer had much of a leg up (pun intended) on the ability to blackmail. "Uh . . . ."

"What are you doing here?" Casey asked.

Quickly standing and readjusting her clothes, she stuttered, "I . . . I wanted to see how much you guys were wanting this." And she motioned to the videotape.

"What's that?" Dan asked.

"I was down here last night," she explained. "Saw you two, figured a videotape of your actions might be something you would want."

"Last night?" Dan asked. "You have a videotape of what we did last night?"

Sally just nodded.

"Well, how about we just forget what we just saw, and you forget you had the tape?" Casey asked.

And again, Sally just nodded. She should've known better than to try and outrace THESE two competitors. Handing over the tape, she silently cursed overhearing about Kim's large financial 'donation' that she received as a result of finding the two this morning.

"You willing to move this party somewhere else?" Casey turned to Dan.

"Let's go," Dan answered. And without a word, the two left the offices of _Sports Night_.

*****

It was dark.

It was very dark.

It was very dark and silent as Dan and Casey sat on the couch in Dan's apartment, expectantly waiting for the black at the beginning of the videotape to change to something else.

A fuzzy blur, then a second of static, and then . . . .

"'Take a jump to the left' (1)," sang a voice that was neither Dan's nor Casey's, but rather the voice of the 'narrator' of _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_.

"'And then a step to the ri-i-i-i-i-ght,' (1)," came the slurred voices of two drunken anchors, and the picture finally came in focus. The two men watched themselves dance drunkenly on top of the anchor desk, Isaac's bottle of 25-year-old scotch in Dan's hand. The sleeping bags were already rolled out below them, almost looking like padding in case one of them fell.

The Dan that was watching all this was kinda surprised that he had drank as much as he had, considering quite a bit of Scotch was splashing out of the bottle (right onto the spot he had felt the wet spot, he realized).

"I kinda remember this," Casey said.

So, they fast forwarded, amused at the sped-up version of The Time Warp being displayed. Once the dancing seemed to calm down, Casey pushed play to continue at normal speed.

"So, Case," came Dan's voice as the two slowly got off the desk, "you ever play Truth or Dare?"

"As a kid," was the response. "Why? You wanna play?"

"Well, I know I always did it when I was camping," Dan said with an obvious smirk on his face.

"Now we know whose idea it was," said the Casey that was watching.

"I had a feeling," Dan said.

"Okay," the Casey in the video said, "truth or dare: when did you lose your virginity?"

"When I was 16," Dan said. "Sweet Georgia Smith, lived just a block away. My turn! Truth or dare: why did Lisa REALLY want a divorce?"

A look fleeted across Casey's face (BOTH of the Caseys, Dan realized), and he finally said, "Dare."

"I dare you to get Steve's underwear and put them on one of the Fresnels." Dan and Casey both realized suddenly that it was Steve (the stagehand) who had spilled the soda that started this mad trip into the wild world of drunkenness.

The two were off screen for a few minutes, which Casey quickly fast forwarded past, and when they came back, Casey had the infamous boxer-briefs in his hands.

"Do you think he'll realize we took them?"

"Nah – he's exercising in the gym," Dan said. "He'll come back to the locker room and figure they'd been stolen."

A few minutes followed as the two watched their video counterparts putting up the boxer-briefs. As they watched, the Dan watching decided to ask, "So, why did Lisa divorce you?"

Casey had a repeat of the look, then seemed to remember their recent past. "Why do you think?" he asked with a copy of Dan's smirk on his face. "She was jealous of you."

A few more uneventful truths and dares (so THAT'S how Casey got his tattoo) followed, and Dan and Casey were both despairing of ever wondering what happened the prior evening.

Then, it hit them before they knew it.

"Man, is it just me, or is it getting warm in here?" Dan asked, sitting quietly on the sleeping bag.

"It may be the alcohol," Casey responded.

"Who knew Isaac had that much?" Dan giggled.

"But hey, if you're warm, you can take off your clothes."

"Excuse me?" Dan asked, looking at his friend.

"We're men, right?"

"I should hope so," Dan answered.

"Well, we're also good friends. We won't let it get weird if we both see each other naked. We've probably done so quite a few times."

"Yeah, in the locker room," Dan answered.

"So? What's the big deal?"

"This is the STUDIO!" Dan said as if that was the answer to everything.

"So?" Casey looked at his friend, then started to unbutton his shirt. "Here, if it'll help, I'll get undressed, too."

So the two watched their counterparts undress on the videotape, and waited anxiously for the next few moments.

Dan took a huge swallow of the Jim Beam they had switched to, almost finishing it off. "Well, I guess we're undressed now."

They looked at each other's naked forms, and Dan slowly reached over to Casey. "You know what?"

The two watching held their breath.

"What, Dan?"

He pulled in his face close to Casey's, inches away, and the two watching just scooted closer to the edge of the couch as Dan continued leaning in toward Casey . . . .

And then they both let out a surprised gasp as Dan continued leaning, falling straight past Casey and falling with an undignified 'whap' onto the floor, snoring peacefully. The rest of the Jim Beam spilled out onto the top of the sleeping bags.

The Casey in the videotape just looked at his sleeping partner and gently moved the body so it was covered up. Giving a slightly goofy grin that the other Casey recognized as his 'sexy' smile, he bent down over his partner and gave a chaste kiss to the forehead before lying down beside him.

And the two watched themselves sleep.

"So we DIDN'T do anything," Dan strangled out, scooting forward to press the fast forward button on the remote.

"Looks that way," Casey said, not quite happy that he was right, watching the sped-up version of their sleep.

"So what does that mean?" Dan asked.

"For us?" Casey asked.

"Yeah."

Casey looked over at his friend, seeing how the brown eyes were once again clouded with confusion and fear.

"C'mon," he decided, standing and holding out his hand to his friend.

"Where are we going?" Dan asked hesitantly.

"I want to 'camp out' in your bedroom," he said, a twinkle in his eyes.

"Are you sure?" Dan continued, standing up slowly.

"I've never been more sure in my life," was the answer.

"'You bring your knees in tight', (1)" Dan started singing. "But it's the pelvic thrust, that really drives you insane."

"Let's do the Time Warp again," Casey finished, bringing his mouth down to Dan's, showing once and for all that there were a lot more dares going on than truths.

**The End**


End file.
